BIRMINGHAM - Muhammad Hafiz Hashim caused one of the biggest shocks in the 104-year history of the All-England badminton championships when he upset the top-seeded title-holder Chen Hong to win the men's singles title yesterday. Hafiz's 17-14, 15-10 victory made him the first Malaysian for 37 years and the first unseeded player for 15 to win the title, and ended Chinese hopes of equalling their own Open era record of winning four of the five titles. It completed what had already been a remarkable tournament for the 20-year-old from Kelantan, who had previously beaten two other seeds and now avenged his elder brother Muhammad Roslin Hashim's defeat in the semi-finals the day before. 'This is revenge for my brother's loss and my next target is to win the World Championships,' said Hafiz, who won the Commonwealth Games title in Manchester last August. Malaysian coach Yap Kim Hock, a former All-England finalist, added: 'The All-England means a tremendous amount to us. This is a huge thing for Malaysian badminton.' The last Malaysian to win the men's singles title was Tan Aik Huang in 1966. Roslin had held five game points against Chen before failing to make it the first time that brothers had met in the men's singles final of a major event, and Hafiz's revenge had a hint of mimicry. He trailed 9-14 in the first game and saved three game points before going on to his startling triumph in 53 minutes. Hafiz, ranked only 46th in the world, achieved his success by playing as many of the rallies in mid-court and at the net as possible, thus increasingly nullifying Chen's spectacularly dangerous airborne attacks. The Malaysian was at least Chen's equal in the flat, fast mid-court exchanges and also picked off winners at the net well. But, even when forced to defend against the world No 1's steep smashes, Hafiz often did remarkable things, once producing a block from behind his back and once between his legs. The key moments came after he had saved a third game point at 12-14, and pushed on to 14-14. That set up a surge of adrenalin, which carried him on a run of six winning rallies and changed the course of the match. In the second game, Hafiz moved ahead from 2-2 to 5-2 and after getting to 11-6 and 14-8, proved mentally strong enough to fight off mini-revivals from Chen, which got the champion back to 8-11 and 10-14. China was already assured of three All-England titles before the final day began, having provided all the finalists for the women's singles and doubles and the mixed doubles. In the women's singles, fourth seed Zhou Mi beat sixth seed Xie Xinfang 11-6, 11-5. Earlier, Zhang Jun and Gao Ling captured the mixed doubles title with an 11-6, 11-7 win over their unseeded compatriots Chen Qiqiu and Zhao Tingting. That enabled Zhang and Gao to complete a hat-trick of major titles, having already triumphed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 2001 World Championships in Seville.
